Submissions

Author Guidelines

SUBMISSION
Contributions should be strictly in the UK English language. The text must be clear and concise, conforming to accepted standards of English style and usage. Non-native English speakers may be advised to seek professional help with the language. Email a copy of the manuscript with the author’s names and their affiliations, for the review process, with original figures and graphs to the Editor in Chief, Borneo Epidemiology Journal, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.

Manuscripts are considered for publication on the condition that they are solely contributed to BEJ and have not been published elsewhere, although they may be presented in scientific meetings. The manuscript must be accompanied by the BEJ assignment form signed by all authors.

Initially, the manuscript will be assessed from editorial points of view. Should the Editorial Office find the manuscript appropriate, it will enter the peer-review process. The corresponding author will then be informed of the evaluation along with editorial remarks. The preferred word processing program is Microsoft Word. The corresponding author will then receive the galley-proof. If the corresponding author is not available for the page proof, a co-author or colleague should be assigned for proof-reading. Authors submitting a manuscript do so on the understanding that if it is accepted for publication, copyright of the article, including the right to reproduce the article in all forms and media, shall be with Universiti Malaysia Sabah.

GUIDELINES FOR PREPARING THE MANUSCRIPT

The implemented guidelines are in accord with the Uniform Requirements for Manuscript Submitted to Biomedical Journals (http://www.icmje.org). The editorial office reserves the right to edit the submitted manuscripts in order to comply with the journal’s style. In any case, the authors are responsible for the published material. The research that involves human beings must adhere to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki (http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm). For reports of randomized controlled trials, authors should refer to the CONSORT statement shown (http://www.consort-statement.org/).

ORGANISATION OF THE MANUSCRIPT

The length of the original articles, excluding References, should not normally exceed 3000 words. Brief and case reports are inevitably shorter. The manuscript should contain the following sections in the order listed.

Title Page, carrying the following information:

The title of the article. Concise titles than long, convoluted ones. Titles that are too short may, however, lack important information, such as study design (which is particularly important in identifying randomized controlled trials). Authors should include all information in the title that will make electronic retrieval of the article both sensitive and specific.

Authors names and institutional affiliations.

Name of the department(s) and institution(s) to which the work should be attributed.
Corresponding author. Name, mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address of the corresponding author.

Abstract
The abstract should be one paragraph, without sections and provide information on: Background/ objective of the study, Materials and Methods used (selection of study subjects or laboratory animals, observational and analytical methods etc.), Results (main findings giving specific effect sizes and their statistical significance, if possible), and Conclusion (it should emphasize new and important aspects of the study or observations). Altogether, the abstract should not exceed 250 words. Do not use reference citation in Abstract.

Keywords
The authors should provide 3 to 5 keywords for indexing purpose. These words have to be selected from the terms recommended in the last version of the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html).

INTRODUCTION
It should provide the background of the study (i.e., the nature of the problem and its significance). State the specific purpose or research objective, or hypothesis tested, the study or observation; the research objective is often more sharply focused when stated as a question. Both the main and secondary objectives should be made clear, and any pre-specified subgroup analyses should be described. Only exact pertinent references should be provided and do not include data or conclusions from the work being reported.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This section should include only information that was available at the time the plan or protocol for the study was written; all information obtained during the conduct of the study belongs in the Results section. It should include information on:

• Selection and Description of Participants (patients or laboratory animals, including controls). Describe your selection of the observational or experimental participants (patients or laboratory animals, including controls) clearly, including eligibility and exclusion criteria and a description of variables such as age and sex.
• Identify the methods and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the results. Give references and brief descriptions for methods that have been published but are not well known; describe new or substantially modified methods, give reasons for using them, and evaluate their limitations. Identify precisely all drugs and chemicals used, including generic name(s), dose(s), and route(s) of administration.
• Describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to verify the reported results. When possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). Avoid relying solely on statistical hypothesis testing, such as the use of p values, which fails to convey important information about effect size. Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and most symbols. Specify the computer software used.

RESULTS
Describe your results in words, with reference to tables or graphs or figures when necessary. Present your results in a logical sequence, giving the main or most important findings first. Do not repeat in the text all the data in the tables or illustrations; emphasize or summarize only important observations. When data are summarized in the Result section, give numeric results not only as derivatives (e.g. percentages) but also as the absolute numbers from which the derivatives were calculated, and specify the statistical methods used to analyse them. Restrict tables and figures to those needed to explain the argument of the paper and to assess its support. Use graphs as an alternative to tables with many entries; do not duplicate data in graphs and tables.

DISCUSSION
Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them. Do not repeat in detail data or any material given in the Introduction or the Results section. For experimental studies it is useful to begin the discussion by summarizing briefly the main findings, then explore possible mechanisms or explanations for these findings, compare and contrast the results with other relevant studies, state the limitations of the study, and explore the implications of the findings for future research and for clinical practice.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Acknowledgements, if any, should appear before References.

REFERENCES
From Vol.1. Issue 2 onwards, the main article should use the Vancouver citation style. Bibliographies cited in tables and figures should be numbered according to the site where the corresponding table or figure first appears. Periodical should be abbreviated according to the Index Medicus (http://www.bioscience.org/atlases/jourabbr/list.htm). Include the name of all authors, if there are four or fewer authors. When there are more than four authors, print names of the first three authors followed by “et al.”. Index Medicus  (http://www.bioscience.org/atlases/jourabbr/list.htm).

Tables
Should be printed on separate sheets, and placed within the text. They should be self-explanatory, clearly designed, and do not duplicate the text. Identify statistical measures of variations, such as standard deviation or standard error of the mean. Be sure that each table is cited in the text.

Figures
Should be provided only if they improve the article. For X-ray films, scans, and other diagnostic images, as well as pictures of pathology specimens or photomicrographs, send sharp, glossy, black and white or colour photographic prints. On the back of each figure, list the figure number, name of the first author, the title of the article, and an arrow indicating the right orientation of the figure. Colour photographs, if found to improve the article, would be published at no extra charge. Letters, numbers, and symbols on Figures should, therefore, be clear and even throughout, and of sufficient size that when reduced for publication each item will still be legible. Figures should be made as self-explanatory as possible. Type or print out legends for illustrations on a separate page, with Arabic numerals corresponding to the illustrations. When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, identify and explain each one clearly in the legend. Explain the internal scale and identify the method of staining in photomicrographs. Markers should be clear with high-contrast with appropriate explanation in the corresponding legend. Be sure that each figure is cited in the text.

Abbreviations and Symbols

Use only standard abbreviations; the use of non-standard abbreviations can be extremely confusing to readers. Avoid abbreviations in the title. The full term for which an abbreviation stands should precede its first use in the text unless it is a standard unit of measurement.

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